


Third Time's the Charm

by habanerohamster



Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: Banter, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Humor, Kidfic, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Senku is a Gremlin, single dad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:02:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27260920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/habanerohamster/pseuds/habanerohamster
Summary: When Byakuya decided he wanted to attempt dating again after years of being single, he was expecting things to go smoothly with no issues. What he wasn't expecting was his 5-year-old son Senku to cause mischief and his dates to block him instantly after meeting his son.When Senku agrees to not be a nuisance anymore if he gets to help his father pick out a suitable partner, Byakuya agrees. But the last thing he expected was for his son to pick his coworker that he didn't see eye to eye with and insist he was the perfect match for him.
Relationships: Ishigami Byakuya/Dr. Xeno
Comments: 10
Kudos: 41





	Third Time's the Charm

"How about this one?" Byakuya asks, showing the phone to his son Senku.

The 5-year-old looks down at the phone, analyzing the profile and picture of the man on the screen.

"What does he do for a living?" The child asks, using his finger to scroll down further to see what interests the man has listed down on his profile.

"I think he sells car insurance." 

"Next." Senku says, swiping left for his father. 

Byakuya sighs bringing the phone back-up to his eye level so he can see if he was even interested in the next person before showing his son to get his opinion. 

A few months ago, Byakuya decided he wanted to get back on the dating scene and had downloaded multiple dating apps to do this. It was extremely easy to match with someone that interested him, send them messages for a couple of days, and then arrange a date between the two of them. Heck he would even say he was a pro at smooth talking and flirting because he never ran into any issues back in the day when it came to the art of romance. 

That is until he started trying to date after having his son Senku. The little boy made pursuing a romantic relationship extremely difficult for him. He learned this the hard way when he had started going out with a woman those first few months after downloading the app. Things were going great, the lady he was seeing was beautiful, nice, and had a stable job. 

After a few weeks went by he decided to bring her over to his home to introduce her to his son Senku. That's when things took a turn for the worse. At first everything seemed fine. Byakuya had made them a delicious meal and they were chatting in the kitchen until Senku had strolled in carrying a metal bowl in his tiny arms with a watery substance in it 

"Hey Senku! This is Lisa. Say hello to her!" Byakuya says, motioning for his son to come over to greet the woman standing near him.

Senku walks over, the liquid in the bowl sloshing out of the metal bowl as the young boy moves closer. Byakuya shakes head at the trail of water his son was leaving behind him as he came over to them. He reaches over for a rag to clean up the mess so no one would slip and fall.

The small child loved to conduct science experiments. Byakuya wasn't mad about that because he encouraged his son's scientific curiosity, but sometimes Senku did experiments that either caused a huge mess or resulted in negative consequences.

"Hey. Do you wanna see my soap bubbles?" Senku asks, walking over to stand in front of the woman. 

"Sure darling!" 

Senku grins mischievously before placing the bowl down on the ground in front of her. Then he randomly pulls out a lighter from behind him somewhere and hurriedly lights the watery liquid in front of him on fire. Byakuya stares wide eyed as his son lights the water bowl on fire and isn't quick enough to stop him. 

"Senku!" He shouts but is too late and watches in horror as the scene in front of him plays out.

His date that night had decided to wear a long summer dress that went down to the ground. Byakuya has no idea what Senku put into that metal bowl, but when he used the propane lighter to light the liquid, the fire it caused expanded and caught onto the woman's dress. 

The next minute after that was disastrous. Neither adult was expecting for his son to pull out a lighter and cause a fire in front of them. It was a huge surprise and even bigger surprise once his date realizes she's on fire. She panics and accidently moves forward causing even more of her long dress to go up in flames. Byakuya could only stare in absolute shock and doesn't react until the woman is shouting his way that she's on fire. 

That's when Byakuya grabs the rag and starts to try to extinguish the fire by using the towel to quickly pat down the flames. That doesn't fully smother out the flames and Byakuya watches in full blown horror as his date literally has to get on the ground to stop, drop, and roll. 

He did not get another date after that catastrophic event. In fact, the other adult threatened to call CPS on him for irresponsibility letting his 5 year old son be in possession of a propane lighter. Byakuya had to frantically reassure her that he doesn't willingly let his son play with torches and that he had no earthly idea where the young boy even got the item from. It took him lots of begging to convince the lady not to report him to the police. He guesses she finally felt sorry for him and didn't, but she did block him and report him to the dating sites headquarters. That resulted in his account getting banned and him having to download another app. 

He remembers scolding his son after that and telling the young boy that he made the woman block him on every social media app in existence and almost got him in deep trouble. Senku had just shrugged and told him that if she couldn't appreciate fire bubbles or be okay with a few flames ruining her dress in the name of science then she wasn't the right one for him.

Byakuya knows he should have probably stopped after that incident, but a part of him thought that maybe the second time would not end horribly. He was utterly wrong unfortunately because the second time was an absolute failure too. Thankfully no one caught on fire this time, but it still went terribly bad. 

Byakuya had matched with a man on another app and the two hit it off pretty well. The other man was a pharmacist and he thought maybe his son would find his new date interesting since he worked in a scientific field. They went on a couple dates until Byakuya decided to introduce him to Senku. This time they agreed to meet-up somewhere that wasn't his house so no more fire incidents could occur. The two men decided to meet-up at a local science museum. Byakuya thought Senku would enjoy the museum and possibly be distracted enough to not cause any trouble. 

Things were going extremely well on their day out at first. Senku was explaining all the facts his little brain knew about dinosaurs to his date and him as they walked through the dinosaur exhibit. Byakuya had hoped that this date would go well and not end in disaster as the last one, that is until they sat down to eat dinner. 

His son had turned to intensely stare at the pharmacist before questioning him about his job. Prior to coming to the museum, Byakuya told his son what profession the other man was in. Now watching the young boy interrogate his date he was realizing maybe that was a mistake.

Senku was aggressively quizzing the man on his knowledge of medicine and science. Byakuya knew his son was insanely smart, but he wasn't expecting the young boy to have studied up on pharmaceutical knowledge to interrogate his date. He watches in horror as Senku keeps bombarding the man with questions concerning his field. Seems the pharmacist was struggling with the questions and getting the answers wrong.

"Wrong again! How are you advising people about medicine if you don't even know what drugs are used to relieve certain symptoms? A lack of knowledge in basic pharmaceutical drugs can be endangering to your patients." Senku scolds the man from his seat where he was eating dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets. 

Okay that was enough. Byakuya wasn't about to let his son continue to embarrass the other man who had been a professional in his field for numerous years. 

"Okay Senku that's enough. You are going to finish your meal and not talk about anything pertaining to the medical field again for the rest of the night." Byakuya orders, giving his son a disapproving look.

The rest of the night was awkward and awfully quiet. The other man seemed embarrassed and uneasy about being schooled by a 5-year-old. Needless to say, the other man ghosted him after that and then he eventually blocked Byakuya too just like the last woman. 

After that terrible incident, Byakuya gave up dating for a few weeks. He wasn't sure he was ready to see what horrific event was awaiting him this time if he tried to bring back another person to meet his son. He was never going to touch another dating app again until Senku asked him about it one day.

"So, no more dates?" The young boy asked from his seat on the couch where they were watching a documentary on sharks. 

"Hmm no I'm probably going to give up on dating for a while."

"Why?" Senku asks, turning to stare at his father.

"Things just weren't working out. I guess I couldn't find the right person."

"It was because of me, right?" 

Byakuya pauses the TV and turns to look at his son. The young boy is giving him a guilty look. Byakuya feels his heart sink at his son believing he was the reason why all his attempts at dating failed. Even if Senku was mostly the reason why none of them worked out he didn't want the young boy to think he was the reason why. 

"Of course, it wasn't because of you. I just couldn't click with any of them. The last guy ate with his mouth open which is gross. There's no way it would have worked out with either of them."

Senku doesn't seem to buy his words and Byakuya watches the young boy tilt his head to the side. He feels like his son is over analyzing him and it makes him shift in his seat nervously. 

"I have a proposition." Senku states.

"Oh?" Byakuya says, confused on where the child was going with this. 

"I'll be on my best behavior starting now, if you let me help you pick your dates."

"What?" Byakuya asks, confused by Senku's words.

"I want you to let me help you pick out your dates on the app. If I approve of them, then I won't cause any trouble." 

Byakuya can't believe his ears. Was his 5-year-old son really saying that he won't let him date anyone that doesn't meet his standards. He feels slightly annoyed that his son was attempting to take charge of his love life, but this could be the only way to date if he wanted to find a partner. Maybe this could work? The young boy did promise to not be a nuisance anymore if he approved of the person beforehand. 

Byakuya agrees to Senku's proposition and they shake on it. Now every other day since that day before Senku went to bed, Byakuya would pull out his phone and they would go through profiles together on the dating app. He admits it's a bit odd to go through dating profiles with your 5-year-old child, but it's weirdly good bonding time. It's given them a chance to laugh at the things people put on their profiles and jokingly discuss what these people were like in real life. 

"I bet this person is a flat earther." Senku laughs, pointing to the picture of a man carrying his golden retriever in his arms. 

Byakuya had no idea how Senku came to the conclusion that the man on the screen believed in the flat earth theory, but it makes him chuckle at how cute his son looks giggling to himself over his own comment. 

"Okay kiddo it's time for bed." Byakuya says, turning his phone off. 

"I'm not tired." Senku yawns.

"Don't you want to wake up early so we can be the first ones at work tomorrow?" 

Byakuya watches Senku nod before the young boy lays down and closes his eyes. He leans over to give his son a goodnight kiss on his forehead that makes Senku scoff and scrunch up his nose. Byakuya laughs at his son's reaction before getting up to walk over to turn off the light. 

"Goodnight Senku."

"Goodnight father." Byakuya hears Senku whisper.

He smiles closing the door quietly behind him. He yawns himself as he makes his way to his room to get ready for bed. Tomorrow was bring your kid to work day at his job. Senku was excited to accompany him and see the inside of the NASA building. The young boy had been talking nonstop about how thrilled he was to be able to walk around inside the building and see things others never got the chance too. 

They were hosting a kid's activity group, where you dropped your child off at the care center and volunteers that worked at NASA would guide them around the facility and engage the kids in space related activities. This gave the adults the chance to work peacefully without their kids looming over them the whole day. 

Byakuya was planning to drop Senku off there tomorrow so the young boy could interact with children his age, get the grand tour around the facility he wanted, and participate in science related activities that he would enjoy. He just desperately hoped that his son wouldn't cause any trouble and be the reason any horrific accidents happened.

* * *

"How was your day today? Did you have fun?" Byakuya asks, looking in his rear view mirror at Senku opening the space themed goodie bag they gave the kids.

Byakuya had just picked up Senku from the kid's day group and they were currently in the car on their way home. Thankfully he didn't get a call saying that his son had burnt down a building or caused something worse to occur. Senku had been awfully quiet since they entered the car and he wondered if something went wrong. He was expecting the young boy to talk his ear off about his day at the facility once he saw him again. 

"You can date Dr. Xeno." Senku finally says, pulling out a galaxy lollipop from the bag.

"Huh?" Byakuya asks, thinking he misheard his son.

"I said you can date Dr. Xeno. He checks off all my boxes as a suitable partner for you." Senku casually says, opening the wrapper of the lollipop before plopping it into his mouth. 

"What?" 

"I hung out with Dr. Xeno today and he has all the perfect qualities to date you." Senku huffs, upset that he kept having to repeat himself to his father. 

"It doesn't work like that Senku." 

"Why not? We agreed that I would help you find and choose a partner and I did. Dr. Xeno is the best candidate."

Byakuya breaks hard when they approach a red light and then frantically turns around to look at his son in the back seat. Senku was happily sucking his lollipop while kicking his legs back and forth in his car seat. His son talked so much like an adult that it was hard to believe sometimes that he was only 5 years old. It was times like this where Senku didn't have enough life experience or the mentality level to understand that life didn't work in that way, which reminded him just how young the boy was. 

"You hung out with Dr. Xeno?"

"Yes. He taught us how to make sugar rockets. It was exhilarating." 

Byakuya presses the gas button once the light turns green and continues their journey back home. He knew that anyone could have volunteered to lead the kid groups today, but he wasn't expecting the scientist to have been one of them. 

"So, when are you guys going on a date?" Senku asks, looking straight into his father's rear-view mirror. 

"Senku. I know you believe that he is the best choice for me, but I don't even know if he's taken or not."

"I asked him. He said he was single." 

Byakuya tightens his hands on the steering wheel. He didn't realize that interviewing people in person was part of their deal for Senku helping him find a partner. He feels embarrassment course through him wondering what else his son asked the scientist. He hoped the young boy didn't interrogate him too hard and mentally notes to apologize tomorrow to his coworker for his son annoying him with constant questioning. 

"We are not going on a date together."

"What why not! He said he was single and he's the only suitable person to date you." 

So now his son believed his coworker was his soulmate and he was only allowed to date the scientist. Great. Byakuya should have known letting a 5-year-old be the one in control of who he dated was a bad idea. Now he was stuck only being able to ask the scientist out or choose to be lonely for the rest of his life. 

"Dr. Xeno and I are not exactly on friendly terms for us to go on a date like you want Senku."

It was the truth. Dr. Xeno and him did know each other. They worked closely together since their specialized jobs coincided together often, so he got to interact with the other man more than some of his other coworkers. That however doesn't mean they got along well. They did not see eye to eye on many topics and views, which is why they clashed constantly. It didn't mean they hated each other's guts, it was just difficult to conversate with the other man sometimes because they saw the world differently.

"Become friends with him and then ask him out."

"Senku. I know you enjoyed Dr. Xeno's company, but I'm not going to ask him out."

"But how would you know if you guys are compatible if you don't date him?"

Byakuya sighs. It seemed Senku was not going to drop the subject unless he got his way. He knew his son would continue arguing with him if he didn't stop the conversation now. 

"I won't know, but Dr. Xeno isn't my type. It wouldn't work between us so stop being persistent about me asking him out. It's not going to happen and that's final." Byakuya states, ordering his son to drop the conversation.

He looks in his rear-view mirror to see his son pout with the lollipop still in his mouth. Thankfully the young boy doesn't continue on and instead stays quiet the whole rest of the ride back. He thought his son would be excited to tell him about his day at his job, but the dead silence concerns him. He hopes that his son does drop the topic and isn't plotting something sinister and troublesome in that tiny little head of his.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed reading this silly ole little fic! This is gonna be my procrastination fic I work on when I'm stressed about doing my classwork. So it'll be updated when that happens, so probably often haha. 
> 
> Here's my [Tumblr](https://habanerohamster.tumblr.com/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/ghoulgecko?s=09) if interested!


End file.
